Is The Boskop Species of Mankind Evidence Against Evolution?

Evolution is the theory that living beings evolve to better adapt to their environment. Becoming "smarter" is one of the reasons given to why homo sapiens were able to conquer all other species of humanoids. After all we are told that mankind evolved from apes. But why is it then that the most intelligent human species, the Boskop, ceased to exist?



The Boskops had a bigger cranial cavity, at about 1800 cc - 1980 cc, than any other species of the homo genus. Modern humans have an average cranial cavity of 1400 cc. However, apparently the Boskop also had very small faces, making their faces almost child like. They also had very small teeth. The Boskops are believed to have had an IQ as high as 150, which would make them the most intelligent species of homo genus the world has ever had, as far as we can tell.



Boskop Giant Skull, Africa

The following video shows "10 Mysterious Extinct Human Species," including the Boskop genus.



So why is it that the "most intelligent species" of humanoids ceased to exist?

What Happened to the Hominids Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us?

There are "theories" that they were killed off by the stronger genus of humanoids. But if that was true then how is it that homo sapiens survived the stronger species? Not to mention the fact that by being more intelligent than even homo sapiens, then Boskop genus should have survived even homo sapiens themselves. If modern humans survived all animals, and all other homo genus, then Boskop should have had survived everyone else. You can't have it both ways. Either brawn wins every time, or intelligence wins.

By being more intelligent the Boskop should have been able to have made more advanced instruments, including weapons.

Could Boskop's intelligence have been lost in interbreeding with other species of the homo genus? Their high intelligence would have made them understand that interbreeding with "the less evolved homo genus" would create less evolved, less intelligent beings.

So what really happened to them?

Why is it that the most intelligent species of humanoids "supposedly" didn't survive?

There is a theory that the Boskop evolved to become the greys, but is it possible that Boskop was an experiment which proved too dangerous because they could have been as intelligent as the greys, or other species of aliens?

Were the Boskop able to create advanced civilizations that are now gone? Were they able to reach the stars, and are out there in some other distant planet?

This is a mystery I wish we knew more about.

RationalWiki

What happened is that a small set of large crania were taken from a much larger sample of varied crania, and given the name, "Boskopoid." This selection was initially done almost without any regard for archaeological or cultural associations -- any old, large skull was a "Boskop".
—Professor of anthropology John HawksWikipedia's W.svg[1]

Boskop Man (Homo capensis) was an alleged (and now discredited) group of hominids thought to date from 10,000 years ago. Named after Boskop, South Africa, they were thought to have had remarkably large brains (1,800-2,000cc typical) and childlike facial features, and were all super-evolved geniuses, with an IQ of 150, compared to us mere nose picking Cro-Magnons.[1]

Unfortunately, they turned out to be a figment of anthropologists' imaginations, based on completely spurious speculation from a tiny number of severely biased samples. The term "Boskop Man" is no longer even in use by anthropologists....

...So the Boskops had been consigned to the trash can of science. But as sometimes happens, the idea was kept alive in popular culture. Loren Eiseley included an essay on Boskop Man[6] in his 1958 collection The Immense Journey. Eiseley conjectured that the Boskops had large brains and small faces and were therefore, as evidenced by their pedomorphism, more highly evolved than Cro-Magnons. They were therefore the "Future Man."

You know what these people look like from sci-fi: they have the facial proportions of grey aliens.

Horrifyingly for their claim to be doing anything resembling science, Lynch and Granger actually referenced Eiseley's ridiculous teleological puffery in their own work.

It would seem they never existed and it's rejected by anthropologists.

Funny how old bad science seems to hang on long past the time it was debunked.

The Boskops had a bigger cranial cavity, at about 1800 cc - 1980 cc, than any other species of the homo genus. Modern humans have an average cranial cavity of 1400 cc. However, apparently the Boskop also had very small faces, making their faces almost child like.

Larger brain size does not mean smarter per se, or elephants and whales would be our intellectual betters. These hominids MAY have been more intelligent. It is not known that they were for sure.

Something else to think about is that intelligence does not equate to being more evolutionarily fit, or producing more viable offspring than competitors. In some cases, intelligence can hinder reproductive success. The smartest people in our modern societies often have the fewest children.

There are "theories" that they were killed off by the stronger genus of humanoids. But if that was true then how is it that homo sapiens survived the stronger species?

Lots of possibilties there... it may not have been an "all things being equal" case. It is possible that this extinct hominid was more exposed to the aggressor because it shared more of the same regional habitat or food, meaning it came into contact more often.

Evolution has an element of chance involved as well. You can't really say that the survivor of an evolutionary contest is the "best" of the competitors. Nor can you look at only one factor (perceived intelligence), and use a failure of the most intelligent of a group to dominate as evidence against evolution in general.

Say there are two people locked in a room, and one of them has an IQ of 80, and is a 350 lbs boxing champion, and the other is Steven Hawking, or similar, and they have a cage match. Would you cite Steven Hawking's failure at the cage match as evidence against evolution?

a reply to: joeraynor

Their frontal lobe was larger than that of other homo genus.

Here is an interesting article.

Remarkable story of maths genius who had almost no brain


www.google.com...=amp

I've seen another where a highly intelligent Chinese student who was the smartest kid in school.

He got checked out and found his brain was the size of your fist. Cant find the article, was about 20 years ago.

Coomba98

a reply to: Blaine91555

Ironic since some anthropologists would make the same claims about the Hobbit race/homo floresiensis.

In many cultures there are stories of these ancient species, including the diminutive "Hobbits." There are also stories of more intelligent human species such as the Tuatha De Dannan, who were believed to be magical beings. But higher intelligence could also be mistaken for "magic."

a reply to: Blaine91555

BTW, I could give links to anthropologists who say the Boskop man/Homo capensis is a real homo sapiens.

...
Heather Frigiola, M.S. in Anthropology from Purdue University
Answered Sep 26, 2018 · Author has 114 answers and 30.6k answer views

The fossil originally dubbed Homo capensis is real. Today it is simply referred to as Boskop Man and is classified as an anatomically modern human, not a separate species. The fossil was discovered at a time when it was fashionable for anthropologists to classify pretty much every new discovery as a new species.
...

www.quora.com...

Then again, the question remains. If they are, or evolved into modern humans, then we "de-evolved" into a less intelligent species. Which would debunk evolution.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Great thread

interbreeding

io9.gizmodo.com...

Here's why that risk isn't all it's cracked up to be....

....A Problem Of Overlapping Genes
While the dangers of inbreeding are generally overstated, they certainly do exist, and can get quite extreme over multiple generations. At its root, the problem is all about recessive genes. While most of the genes that we carry are either beneficial or neutral in character - otherwise, we wouldn't survive - we all have a handful of genes that have the potential to have a serious negative impact on our health. These are known as autosomal recessive disorders, and they include cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Tay-Sachs disease, albinism, and a variety of other conditions.

These recessive genes, however, generally remain inactive b

Is The Boskop Species of Mankind Evidence Against Evolution?

That would depend on if its reasonable to assume that all these species are somehow missing pieces, missing "links".

With the advances in human tampering in the medical field I don't understand why some hold evolution as a theory when its more plausible to suggest that species on this earth may have been a result of careful husbandry by our maker/gods.

"So why is it that the "most intelligent species" of humanoids ceased to exist?"

Perhaps they still do. Only in another solar system. 150 IQ would likely facilitate the technology to prevail in Space Travel.

oooops. double click

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Their frontal lobe was larger than that of other homo genus.

But the frontal cortex of sperm whales dwarves ours, and as far as we know, they aren't sending rockets to the moon.

Nor is ours the biggest relative to scale... sea lions have much bigger frontal cortexes relative to their body size. It also isn't believe that the frontal cortex alone accounts for superior human intelligence, with many other areas, such as the cerebellum believed to be involved.

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

Smithsonian Magazine

Homo capensis: In the early 1910s, two farmers stumbled across hominid fossils, including bits of a skull, near Boskop, South Africa. The bones were passed around to many anatomists—including Raymond Dart, who later discovered the first Australopithecus fossil—before ending up in the hands of paleontologist Robert Broom. Broom estimated the brain size of the skull (PDF): a whopping 1,980 cubic centimeters (the typical modern person’s brain is around 1,400 cubic centimeters). Broom determined that the skull should be called H. capensis, also known as Boskop Man. Other specimens from South Africa were added to the species, and some scientists became convinced southern Africa was once home to a race of big-brained, small-faced people. But by the 1950s, scientists were questioning the legitimacy of H. capensis. One problem was that the thickness of the original skull made it difficult to estimate the true brain size. And even if it were 1,980 cubic centimeters, that’s still within the normal range of variation for modern people’s brains, anthropologist and blogger John Hawks explained in 2008. Another problem, Hawks pointed out, was that scientists were preferentially choosing larger skulls to include in H. capensis while ignoring smaller skulls that were found in association with the bigger specimens. Today, fossils once classified as H. capensis are considered members of H. sapiens.

Sounds like a classic case of making the evidence fit the theory to me.

I do wonder if this whole "Homo" subject is not one of miss identification, over the past 150 ears or so.

It seems, every time there is an "Ape/Primate" type skull found in Africa, Europe, Russia, Asia etc, it is all of a sudden, a new species of "Homo", and must be called........

Rarely, if any time, have I read of a new ancient skull found, and the experts declare, Ahhh we have found a new ancient forefather species of Gorilla, or Chimpanzee, or Gibbon...................9 times out of 10, its always another "Homo".

We are all aware that the Museum/research/anthropology, and all other "ologies" are multi million dollar businesses, funded by governments, paying these career archaeologists and professor 100s of 1000s $ salaries, and million dollar museums etc....all to continue their "Research" into man and his minions.......Dare be the end of the World if they ever lose their jobs.

Look, seriously, I can go All around our modern World, Right Now, and find people that look like Neanerthals in West and eastern Europe, hairy and all. I can go Anywhere in Asia and find people the look like Java man. I can go anywhere in Africa and find people who look like Erectus man.
Just in our Now World, we have people with huge heads for various reasons, we have pygmies, we have Mongoloid people, we have people with 6 fingers, we have people with crab hands, we have 7 foot giants...etc etc etc.
Someone in the future, looking at Our skulls etc from our present, will they conclude that we are all different species, and may have interbreed??, and We must have all had brown or dark skin, because we all know about Global Warming...

What there seems to be a lack of logic as to where modern "Man" came from, personally, I dont think there is a Modern Man...a Homo Super Sapien.....because a White Man European tribe, is still a modern man, just like an Australian nunga Tribe, or an African Bushman tribe, or Masai Tribe, or an Asian Chinaman........we are ALL modern Man, even though some of us may still carry cranial traits of ancient man of millions of years ago.

Currently, the two most oldest "Continuous" culture tribes we know are the African Bushman and the Australian Koorie and Nunga people.

I recently found an 1890s picture of 2 young Australian Native men from the Western arid regions...... they both had Braided long hair, and were both 6' 7" tall !!!! AND Australia also had native pygmy type peoples of the North East part of the continent.....just on the Australian Continent Homo varied considerably.......and yes Central Australian Natives are often born with Blonde hair, straight or wavy of course, and many adult men of all tribes in the land, develop much body hair, just like some European man....and the Ainu people of Japan.

We are basically a mixed breed......just like all the dogs.

The Neanderthals had larger brains than modern humans but have long been characterized as primitive brutes. Thankfully attitudes have been changing about how intelligent the Neanderthals really were.

Cranial/ Brain Size of Homo Neanderthalensis

Many people are under the misconception that Homo neanderthal had a smaller brain than modern humans since they were not as evolved. But their brains were just as large as ours and often larger, proportional to their brawnier bodies. Homo neanderthal brain size was larger than the average modern human brain and averaged 1500 cubic centimetres and an average 3.3 lbs. This is to be expected, as Neanderthals were generally heavier and more muscular than modern humans. People that live in cold climates also tend to have larger brains than those living in warm climates.

Average Cranium/ Brain Size of Homo neanderthalensis

originally posted by: Blaine91555
...
Sounds like a classic case of making the evidence fit the theory to me.

Smaller skulls which they don't specify as to whether or not they were also Boskop. Simply because Boskop skulls were found among others with different sizes it doesn't mean they were also Boskop. After all, we know that the different homo genus also fought against, and co-existed with other species of homo genus. Could the different skulls in that site have been the result of a battle?

If it is true that the Boskop man was part of the homo sapiens species, then why did Boskop man devolve instead of evolving more?

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck
The Neanderthals had larger brains than modern humans but have long been characterized as primitive brutes. Thankfully attitudes have been changing about how intelligent the Neanderthals really were.
...

...
Rather than basing intelligence on brain size alone some researchers believe that a better correlate of intelligence or cognitive skill should be based on the size of specific parts of the brain and how they compare to the rest of the brain and overall body size.

Areas such as the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe and visual/auditory systems among others may be measured separately to determine an animals level of performance related to that specif brain function.

Studies among children and adults show that when one part of the brain has abnormal growth/reduced size it can alter the brains ability to function and either enhance or reduce specific functions associated with that part of the brain.
...

www.whalefacts.org...

a reply to: joeraynor

Whales have other cognitive functions that humans do not posses. Not to mention, read the excerpt I gave before this response.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Funny how old bad science seems to hang on long past the time it was debunked.

But why though? Why is it funny?

Old bad science gives us imaginative, interesting traditions such as Flat Earth, Evolution, and all manner of bizarre creations. Seems only natural these curiosities and oddities would continue to crop up here and there...

Plus the younger generations need a chance to learn about them. They arent born automatically knowing all of the previous generation's tricks.

This one, I had not yet heard of yet, and am just now being made awares. You can learn a lot from studying hoaxes, frauds, misunderstandings, imposters, crimes, comedies of error, etc.

Of course, we prefer that we encounter these items presented under correct and accurate pretenses... But that's where ATS' true strength is and what draws the crowds... It operates, for all intents and purposes, as a BS Filter. I mean,
it gets the obvious or previously known BS. Nothing can detect All BS. Our existence, reality itself, may be "BS"... But this site works well enough for the purpose of everyday general use(mileage may vary from topic to topic...because some threads may not get enough attention to be properly processed).

originally posted by: gort51
...
We are basically a mixed breed......just like all the dogs.

But the trait, and gene/s that made Boskop man smarter is gone. Why?

Why would "evolution" get rid of the one gene that would have made us smarter and better? It makes no sense. Unless this was done by an intelligence that didn't want us to become "better."

The Boskop didn't have "encephalitis," or other problems that would deform their skulls like you would find today. It was part of their genes to have a larger brain than modern humans.

Why would humans who were smarter than us reproduce with other homo genus that the Boskop would know would cause their offspring to be dumber?

It makes no sense. If it was because of evolution, then we devolved into dumber beings. Unless this was done by an intelligence that didn't want us to become "smarter," or"better."

a reply to: 3n19m470

It isn't "bad science." I have already shown Blaine that the Boskop man did exist. But today most anthropologists think they are part of homo sapiens. But if that is true then we devolved into dumber beings.

Why would evolution take a step back and make us worse?